Protect Your Computer Data

Computer data can be very important to us, especially those of us who make a living on the computer. Over the last several years, the computer has grown on all of us, making our lives so much easier. For that very reason, it's easy to tell that if we lost our computer data, it would completely destroy a majority of us.

Losing data can be an overwhelming thought to say the least. Computers store data, although machines have been known to fail. Even though the computer has become a lot more reliable over the years, it is virtually impossible to prevent computers from losing data.

You don't need to take this lying down through, as you can indeed fight back. The ideal way to ensure that you never lose your precious data, is to back it up and keep backing it up. You should back up your computer data at least once a week, with once per day being the recommended way to do it.

In the past, and even some today, the floppy disc is the main method used to back up computer data. Even though they store a small amount of data, they are easy to access, easy to use, and nearly every computer has one.

Those of you who are looking to take things to the next level should look into backing up your entire hard drive. Backing up your entire hard drive is something that everyone should do, as it is indeed one of the best and most reliable ways to backup your computer.

When you create a backup of your entire hard drive, it will copy all of your information, so if something happens you'll always have your data. Doing a full backup of your hard drive is great, although it can be very time consuming. To make matters worse, it is recommended that you create a backup at least once a week. On the other hand, if what you have on your computer is very important, you'll find it more than worth the effort and time needed to back things up.

Another way you can back up your data, programs, and files, is to burn them directly to a data CD or DVD. This way, you can select which files or folders you want to keep. If you use CD/RW or DVD/RW disks, you can continue to add information to them when you create a backup. If you don't use the RW (re-writable) media, then you won't be able to go back and add more information to the disc.

Burning data directly to discs are the method of backup that most people are using these days, although backing up the entire hard drive is the preferred way of backing up your data. If you plan to use discs, you'll need either a CD or DVD burner, which you can get for a great price these days. The discs are cheap as well, which only makes this method of backing things up that much better.

Whether it's for your business or for personal reasons, you can't go wrong backing up your data. You should always strive to back things up properly, as this will ensure that the data will always be there when you need it. This way, if you computer happens to crash or you lose everything on your hard drive, you'll always have your backup files to go back to. This in itself can save you a lot of time, effort, and quite possibly even money - just for the simple fact that the files are all but a copy away to restore.

Ink Cartridges, Toner Cartridges: Never Run Out Of Office Supplies

Have you ever been working on a really important presentation only to learn that your ink, toner, paper supply or other crucial office supplies are all used up? It happens to everyone that works from a home office and many people who work in small businesses every single day. And, there are times that it can make the difference between landing a contract and missing out on an important job.

So, how do you avoid running out of ink, toner or other important supplies at crucial times? Well, the answer is not the same for small business or home-based business as it is for large corporations. Large corporations purchase in bulk at wholesale prices and then build warehouses if necessary to hold the important supplies. You, however, probably only have a small closet or credenza to store your office supplies not in immediate use.

So, how can you as a small business owner manage to never run out of ink, toner, specialty paper, brochure stock and other critical items? It is really easy if you put a simple plan in place. Only the very smallest operation purchase paper one ream at the time. You probably purchase one case of paper stock so that you can save money. When you stack that paper stock into your credenza or storage closet, place one ream flat on the bottom and on top of that ream stick a brightly colored post-it type note on top of the ream that says in big black letters BUY MORE PAPER NOW. Now, here's the secret of including the word paper in your note. When you reach the ream above the one with the note, you simply pull the note off the unopened bottom ream and use it as a shopping list.

The same process goes for ink, toner, and any other office supply product that you purchase two or three or even a dozen at a time but you never want to run out of that item. The result is that, when you pick up the next-to-last inventory item of ink, toner, or other supply, you pull the note from the last one and use it as a reminder to buy the item now rather than waiting until the last item is in use.

Once you have reach the point of pulling a note from one item, before going shopping or sending someone from the staff to shop for supplies, review the quantity of other items on hand. If you are one ink or toner cartridge away from reaching the last one, it can be more efficient to go ahead and purchase additional ink, toner, or other supplies now rather than making multiple trips to shop. After all, time is money and you don't want to waste either.

When stocking items when you have not pulled the last item from the shelf to use, be sure to stock the oldest items in front rather than adding newer items to the front of the shelf. This will ensure that your stock is rotated properly and ink, toner, and other items with defined shelf-life will not go out of date. Just remember to place your handy sticker on the last one to remind you to buy more before you actually reach the end of your supply.

It's a simple system, but it will ensure that you never, ever run out of ink, toner, paper or other important office supplies at the moment you really need them to get the job done.

Information Overload and Your Home Business

A major complaint people have when trying to work on their home business is the sheer lack of time. There's so much to do, so much to learn, that you quickly run out of time.

It's easy to get run over by information. Most people are so connected to the outside world, with cell phones and email, along with all the online distractions, that it can be very hard to focus.

However, you do need to spend time regularly learning skills relevant to your home business. If you don't pay enough attention to what is going on in your industry you can quickly fall behind or be lacking in new skills.

It helps to set rules for yourself. With rare exceptions, only allow yourself to check your email at certain times. Believe it or not, many people can get away with checking it just once a day. Most things that go through email aren't so vital that it needs to be checked throughout the day. Your particular needs may sometimes dictate otherwise, but know the difference.

Demand respect for your working time. Don't allow people to call you all day when you need to be working. If you ask that your business be treated as seriously as a traditional job, people can be trained to let you work.Perhaps most importantly, don't overdo your time spent reading and participating in forums and blogs.

These are wonderful resources for information as well as networking, but they're also horrendous time sinks. If you figure out how long is reasonable to allocate to these, you can greatly increase your productivity while still learning.Go through the email newsletters you get and cut out the junk. It's easy to subscribe to far more than you can ever reasonably read, and sometimes one that sounds good turns out to be little more than ads and hype for the next hot product. Cut out the junk and only read the ones that are often worth your time.Know what you need to learn and what you will do better to hire someone else to do for you. You have certain skills that you need to keep up to date. But try to do it all and you are more likely to fall behind. Hire the right people to do the other things for you and keeping completely up to date is their problem.

Then you only need to be aware of general trends in that area.And of course, when you're researching something, try to stay focused on what you need to learn. It's very easy to get sidetracked and start reading everything that comes up in a sidebar to what you actually want to know, but that's a horrendous time waster.

If it looks that good, drop it into the bookmarks for a later read. Then, when you still haven't read it three months later you can feel good about deleting it from your bookmarks folder.